History With A Twist…Dick Clark Debuts A Landmark Song

This video opens with Dick doing the intro in front of an RCA TK10 at ABC New York. This is August 6, 1960 and this is the first time ‘The Twist’ was performed on television, but this is not ‘American Bandstand’. It’s ‘Dick Clark’s Saturday Beechnut Show’.

‘American Bandstand’ was Clark’s hit weekday show, which aired after school from WFIL in Philadelphia, but on February 5, 1958 ABC gave Clark a 7:30 Saturday night slot on the network for the New York based Beechnut Show, which usually came from The Little Theater on West 44th Street in Manhattan, but for some reason, this night it was done from ABC’s studios on West 66th Street as you can tell by the bleacher seating.

‘The Twist’ was Dick Clark’s second venture with Chubby, and one of his first as a producer. The year before, Clark produced Checker on a novelty single called ‘The Class’ in which the singer portrayed a school teacher with an unruly classroom of musical performers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2zXff_8-6w

The song’s premise allowed Checker to imitate such acts as Fats Domino, The Coasters, Elvis Presley, Cozy Cole, and Ricky Nelson, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian Forte as The Chipmunks trio. Clark sent the song out as his Christmas greeting, and it received such good response that Cameo-Parkway signed Checker to a recording contract. That single became Checker’s first release, charting at #38 in the spring of 1959. Clark’s wife gave Ernest Evans his stage name by reworking Fats and Domino into Chubby and Checker.

Hank Ballard wrote The Twist and had recorded it in late 1958. The song became popular on a Baltimore television dance show hosted by local DJ Buddy Dean; Dean recommended the song to Clark. When the song proved popular with his audience, Clark attempted to book Ballard to perform on the show. Ballard was unavailable, and Clark decided to record the song with a local artist and who better than his friend Chubby Checker, whose voice was very similar to Ballard’s. Exposure for the song on ‘American Bandstand’ and on ‘The Dick Clark Saturday Night Show’ helped propel the song to the top of the American charts. Now you know the whole story. Enjoy the clip and share!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbK0C9AYMd8&feature=related

Chubby Checker – The Twist

Source